Catalytic systems for enhanced carbon dioxide reforming of methane: a review

Carbon dioxide and methane emissions are major greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, thus calling for rapid techniques of sequestration. For instance, dry reforming of methane transforms CO2 and CH4 into syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO, yet the reaction catalyst becomes inactivated by carbon formation and metal sintering. Here, we review catalytic systems used for dry reforming of methane. Improved catalysts of high catalytic performance and stability are obtained by selecting the active metal, supporting materials, promoters and preparation techniques. We found a strong correlation between the support morphology, physicochemical properties and catalytic performances. In particular, fibrous structures show optimal metal–support interaction, distribution, particle size, basicity, storage of oxygen space, surface area and porosity, resulting in high performance of anti-coking and anti-sintering.